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JohnDeBellisFirstEssay 3 - 07 Mar 2016 - Main.EbenMoglen
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I am having some difficulty figuring out how to apply the lessons I took from Robinson’s Metamorphosis to my own life and goals. I admire Robinson in many ways, as he is an immensely capable attorney, with a strong knowledge of how the law works, and a creative way of applying it. At the same time, he does not lose focus on the social consequences of his actions and his clients’ behavior. But he is also not very likeable, and has the personality that makes many people dislike lawyers. | | | However, I am still struggling with whether there is an inherent good to outcomes, regardless of a client’s perception of that outcome. An omniscient third party would likely say yes, it is better for a person to get out of prison in nine years rather than ten, even if he believes he was subject to injustice at the hands of his own attorney. But I am not sure the client would feel that way, especially because he does not definitively know the alternative. I appreciate Robinson, and I hope to emulate him in many ways, but I also think the attorney-client relationship is just as important as the result of the client’s case. | |
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The draft describes a feeling. The description is somewhat
repetitive, so one could edit the draft to keep the feeling while
freeing up space to consider the questions raised by the feeling.
In the first place, is the social-worker activity you propose for
yourself consistent with the actual conditions of practice? At what
caseload would that be possible, never mind worthwhile, and at what
caseload does it become infeasible? What caseload level do you
expect that the taxpayers actually wind up funding? There are facts
available, so you can find them.
In the second place, what psychological premises are you employing
and what establishes them? To say that people would rather serve
ten years' imprisonment and feel justly dealt with than nine years
in a hostile system is not—to put it
gently—self-evident.
In the third place, how do you conclude that the criminal defense
lawyer's role should be "friend"? I've never thought that even Charles Fried could be convincing on that point. Perhaps that's because I have in fact represented people charged with or in danger of being charged with crimes.
Given how much of "the system" is used to process a rather small
part of the population—which looks far darker in color and
poorer than the rest of us—what does "changing the system"
mean, if not addressing its racist and class-oppressive priorities
in prosecution and punishment?
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